It is well known to connect printed wiring boards (PWB's) to a backplane having a multitude of pins projecting therefrom. This is typically accomplished using a connector comprised of a molded insulator housing having a plurality of cavities, each cavity having an elongated metal contact inserted therein. The connector is affixed to the PWB by staking or other fastening means and portions of the contacts projecting from the connector are soldered to the board. The PWB with the connector thereon is urged towards the backplane to insert a plurality of pins into the appropriate contacts of the connector.
The elongated metal contacts, stamped and formed from 0.010 inch thick stock in high speed punch presses, are not severed from the raw material strip during their passage through a progressive punch and die. Instead, the contacts depend from a continuous spine by means of narrow support stems. Accordingly, the input to the contact insertion machine is in the form of coils of such contacts.
Typically, the contacts may be cut from the spines and placed in a vibratory feeder apparatus. The contacts are then fed into the cavities in the connector housing and a punch is urged downward to insert the contact into the connector cavity. A further technique is to fill a magazine or boot with a plurality of contacts which is placed over a connector housing and the contacts simultaneously urged into the connector cavities. It is also known to feed a single strip of contacts depending from a continuous spine to an insertion head having two punches. The contacts are pushed away from the spine which deforms the upper portion of the contact which is then cut. The two punches then are moved downward to insert two contacts into alternate cavities in the connector housing. Such prior art insertion machines are relatively slow in operation and have been found to have substantial downtime.
Accordingly, there is a need for high speed contact insertion equipment having minimal downtime which can insert elongated contacts into connector housings.